Some painters report difficulties with black
colours in tube, used for
undercoats. If the quantity of oil added by the manufacturer is too
important, you must simply respect a longer drying time.
It seems that, possibly, at the origin of these
rumours, there is a confusion between carboned blacks and
animal blacks , a confusion
repeated by some American manufacturers of painting tubes, without
forgetting some European authors, who, besides, are excellent, but
assimilate wrongly ivory or bone black to animal black.
Ivory black does not particularly contain any oxygen or
ossein. What about
vine black which by nature cannot contain any
ossein ?
That seems strange.
Black is not the only colour to be alloted with special
abilities: other dark colours are in the same case. Is it a problem of
poorly conveyed tradition or only a problem of vision, which is posed in
these cases with more acuity? The answer to this question will be developped
little by little, along with the tests we will complete, the
testimonies we will gather.
For the moment, we refuse to acknowledge the regrettable hearsay about these
majestic colours as the experience invites us not to do it.
There are at
least three kinds of uses of black :
1.
using pure black
2.
the synthesis of blacks
3.
the combined use of black and other colours
Pure blacks
Are:
[Animal
black]
*
ivory black, produced by charring
defatted and bleached animal bones, has been discovered either in the
Antique Greece or in the Ancient Empire of Egypt, depending on sources .
Other people may have been using it since such old times.
Fortunately, no elephant burial ground has been used to make this pigment,
whatever some (obviously) poorly informed authors may say.
Sheep
bones give
bone black, that must be
distinguished from ivory black because of its lower quality.
Chromatically fairly neutral although subtly warm, ivory black is very
permanent, stable in blends, very covering (contrary to what diverse sources
may state against all evidence) and very colouring. It is known as little
siccative, wrongly: it behaves perfectly well and even much better than some
pigments with a better reputation. Not achieving to get a correctly
siccative paste with this remarkable pigment would be very surprising.
The opposite picture represents
ivory black. Contrast,
saturation and luminosity have been intensified a lot to make perceptible a
few chromatic nuances.
Ivory
black is a first-rate pigment reference.
Advised reading :
Ivory black on Pourpre.com
*
bone black, made from charred defatted
sheep bones. Little covering and colouring, it has almost disappeared from
the palettes.
*
deer
antler
black. Grated and charred antlers have been used
throughout the Eurasian continent. Charred deer antler powder is probably
still in use in Asia for some secret processes such as the fabrication of
Indian ink.
*
rhinoceros
black. In China, people used widely the charred
powder of this unfortunate animal’s horn. It is true that it allows gorgeous
gradations of grey.
*
wool black. Used in the Ancient Muslim
East, it would have been obtained by repeated charring of the wool of sheep
tail, with addition of salt (information source:
Anne Varichon). It would
have given an ink.
Black
dromedary wool is also mentioned, dyed (without preliminary charring) with
ferrous pigments and other dark tinctorial substances.
*
other blacks of animal origin. In Africa,
notably, skins of all kinds of animals have been charred, often in
association with iron oxides.
We must
also mention the sepia, which gives a black when not diluted.
Read the article about sepia.
At
last, some people have been working lately on the outstanding features of an
"ultimate black" (said ultrablack), first discovered on the wings of a
butterfly. This black is a
metamaterial, not a pigment.
Details in a
passage of chapter XI of
the Dialogs at Dotapea, The metamaterials.
[Vegetable
blacks]
*
Peach black, traditionnally produced by
charring peach, apricot, cherry stones, or almond shells, very permanent. It
has a warm hue, slightly red.
Today, it is a blend of
aniline black and earths
which helped this substance to get a covering nature that it did not have
before (according to reliable sources although not confirmed experimentally
by us).
*
Vine black, (called during the Middle Age
nigrum optimum, "the best of the blacks"), made by burning young vine
shoots. Bluish and magnificent according to
Cennini, it does not appear
to us, matter of factly, that its features are so spectacular. This is maybe
due to the current fabrication processes or to their origins. Some painters
among us confirm that it has indeed a bluish aspect but they point that it
has a tendency to attenuate while drying. We will make more
experimentations.
*
Logwood
black. Read
the text about logwood in the article devoted to violet
and mauve.
*
Gallnut
black. Gallnut is an outgrowth of the oak due to
the presence of the larva of a parasitic insect (cynips). Loaded with a
vaguely brown black tannin, known at least since 2500 BC (Egypt), it has
been used in dyeing, in painting and in writing, notably during the Middle
Age in Western Europe, where, associated with iron, it gave a "gallo-tannate
of iron" a very
permanent, very used ink
though costly and difficult to make (so, imitations are of course
mentioned). The association with this element lasted durably, including in
dyeing.
It has
been the purpose of a profitable trade because it was the only substance to
produce black dyes and inks that were really permanent. The
production area was quite extensive.
It was mainly a very wide Syro-Anatolian
region; the whole East Mediterranean perimeter produced also gallnut for
local use.
As a
dye, gallnut is particularly difficult to use.
Substantive dye, it has in
itself
mordant properties (it has
been sometimes used as a dye only) that can make the substance corrosive
when too concentrated.
Its use
never ceased to be intensive and even knew an apogee in the West during the
XVIIIth century (age of the mastery for many dyes).
Adjuvants and dyeing processes
were then a matter for a complex, battle-hardened chemistry.
A
Japanese variety of gallnut is supposed to have been used during the
medieval age.
*
Smoke
black and soot black. They refer more to a process
than to a precise substance. They prevailed during
prehistory,
Antiquity and beyond. Pigments
for painting as for writing and dyeing, they can be produced by
*
the
charring of different resinous, oleaginous or starch-containing substances,
whose residue would be collected above the flame. When made this way, they
are more especially used in painting. They are commonly named "soot
blacks ". Read
passage in Dialogs at
Dotapea, chap. I, About binders.
* the
charring of pine wood, pinus teda, particularly used in this case for
writing. Other ligneous substances can be used. These blacks are commonly
named "smoke blacks"- this appellation
is inappropriate because it is still soot, but this is the reference term.
In a
case like in the other, these substances are supposed to be covering and
colouring, even binding for some of them (see
bistre) but we have not been able to test them
yet. We won’t dwell upon their bad reputation concerning their properties of
siccativation when used with oil paint, because this rumour seems to be
consistently unfair as soon it is about black pigments. Their oily aspect is
maybe the cause of this opinion. For this reason, some authors insist on the
difficulty of mixing them with water-based paints and suggest strong
remedies: detergent and methylated spirits... We hold a more experimental
and objective judgment all the more so vegetable and properly oleaginous
soots do really not have the same behaviour.
According to some, smoke black (pine) is of better quality when
strongly carbonated. It has a reputation for being usually bluish (contrary
to soot black, rather brown), but as all soot dot not look alike, we will
not be more affirmative about this point.
In dyeing it appears among the worst colorants, whereas soot black would
behave properly.
Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used both varieties (read
miscellaneous inks). There
is also the smoke black in Ajanta (Dekkan, Indian Union, IIth
century BC – VIIth AC).
Indian
ink is supposedly made with a very special
smoke black (read
the article about Indian
ink).
In
China still, people used charred deposit located on the bottom of cauldrons
(outside, on the flame side) to realize drawings and patterns of
traditionally minor importance (kites for example). This black is
called "cauldron
black". The use of equivalent substances is
mentioned in Central Africa and in the Berber culture, but, in these cases,
for tattooing purposes.
On
every continent and even on the sea ice, smoke black would be the most used
pigment for traditional tattooing.
Soot
black variant:
*
bistre (see
text in Miscellaneous inks ) is made from
soot.
*
lamp black is another appellation for
soot black (see
above). It could
be an anglicism.
*
carbon black- an eloquent name! -, which
can be made in different manners, is an industrial version.
*
black
obtained
by pyrography.
Which is a peculiar variety of vegetable black. This is
wood charring, most of the time. The process is not modern, it has been used
by different civilizations who mastered metallurgy. With a heated metal tip,
you trace designs onto a surface. But you can also integrally burn objects,
more or less superficially with no particular technique required.
Nowadays, one can use electric
pyrographs to work on other
materials than wood.
*
other
vegetable
blacks. Willow tree, beech tree, ebony, daphne,
creeper, acacia barks, or even fruit such as pomegranate, almond or coconut
bark – all of them high in
tannin, reacting with metal
oxides, which explains the very common practice of mud baths -, plum, peach
or cherry stones, gum tree seed pods and wild oak roots, charred most of the
times, have been used on every continent of the planet. The shades vary
functions
of vegetable species.
Since
Prehistory, this kind of blacks, made from charred vegetables and sometimes
mixed with animal fat, has been used in cave painting. In parallel,
throughout history, burnt wood (not bound with fat), like charcoal, allowed
corrections, and therefore
outline,
draft and
sketch drawings (read
the article about preparatory drawings).
The examples of use in diverse fields, at all times and in every part of the
world - including Great North - are innumerable. Using jointly a
binder allowed to obtain
genuine paintings, from the Paleolithic in some cases.
At
least we can mention the use of,
*
charred wine sediment black in
Egyptian Fayoum. It has been well preserved , but that was admittedly in
exceptional conditions. See
wine sediment.
*
wine black,
used by Etruscans jointly with
vine black ; it is made
from the charring of wine marc(read
the article marc of the glossary, acceptation 1).
*
chestnut leaves, dried or not (and
possibly the bark and chestnut husk, likewise colouring). Naturally,
these elements give gradations from an unclean yellow to the darkest brown.
Associated with iron oxides, they produce blacks and greys. During the XIXth
century, they have been associated with
logwood in undercoats or
overcoats to make genuine blacks. They have been also used in tannery. The
middle of the XXth century sees the beginning of the decline of
the use of chestnut leaves.
Branches can be used in decoction as
mordants, bringing a yellow
coloration though. Ashes, however,
would produce very good results.
Chestnut trees are grown in Europe, North Africa and in North America.
*
walnut stain.
Read the page about this product.
[Mineral blacks]
*
mud
black. They have been mostly used in dyeing by
many peoples. The longevity of these processes is quite short anyway.
Watered-down, the mud blacks give wide-ranging hues (greys, greens, browns).
Some muds have also
mordant properties. Some
painters working with natural earths use occasionnally this element whose
composition may considerably vary.
The
purest marine muds are dredged around the Chausey Islands, off the coast of
Granville (Manche, France) but we do not know if they can be used in
painting or dyeing. Our sources of information mention only non-salty
muds.
What
characterizes muds, what earned them a worldwide use, is in the first place
the fact that they contain metal oxides (see
Other vegetable blacks).
Therefore, we advise the "mud wonderers" to have samples of the products
tested beforehand, in order to define the treatment that can be possibly
applied.
*
Mars black or iron black, a natural or synthetic
iron oxide, used a lot in acrylic painting but also in oil painting and
other processes. Little covering and colouring according to some, it numbers
actually among the most covering and colouring substances, like all the pure
ferrous oxides. It is slightly cool.
In decorative painting, it would have also some virtues as a rustproof
coating.
It is a commonly known reference just like ivory black, although it behaves
differently.
*
Manganese
black. It is a
manganese oxide. It appears
to be very rare. It is supposed to have been used notably in the past by the
Australian Aborigines.
*
Khol. Read
the article of the glossary.
*
Prussian black. This is a charred
Prussian blue, very little
used.
*
Cassel
earth. This is not an earth strictly speaking.
Cassel earth is from vegetable origin: it is a lignite (a coal, rich in
carbon until 70%). It is a very warm black. It is
said to be fleeting but we did not observe this flaw, far from it. This
pigment is clearly less covering than ivory or Mars black and allows, for
this reason, some very interesting brownish gradations of grey even
without adding any white (by mere dilution). For this reason, it has been
used to make substitutes for walnut stain.
A
"variant" of Cassel earth would be a particular umber: the Nocera Umbra
earth (link).
*
bitumen (see opposite, a picture of a jar of Judea
bitumen). Extracted on soils covering oil slicks, it had two moments of
glory :
* in
Middle-eastern Antiquity, it was an important source of production for black
pigment
* at the
end of the XIXth century, it made a noticeable appearance,
shortly before the painters discovered its
disastrous behaviour, mostly in oil painting. It never dries and
goes through the layers of paint, causing dreadful cracks ! The Raft of
the Medusa is supposed to have suffered the consequences of it.
An
imitation, created in an extrafine oil paint range, gave rise to a
bitumen lacquer of good
quality. Judea bitumen is used nowadays only in etching and cabinetmaking.
About this topic, read
the article of the glossary.
Advised reading:
Bitumen on Pourpre.com
Read also a passage in The crackle finish.
*
Third-World
blacks. In the Africa and Australia of aborigines,
people use substances composing car and small batteries for decorative
painting and to build backgrounds of artistic works. Very often, these
products contain heavy metals.
Blacks synthesis
Organic synthesis
For the
moment, we will mention an
aniline black
which does not have a bad reputation.
Advised reading:
Aniline black on Pourpre.com.
By
blending
With
watercolour, it is easy to create a black : just by combining a dark blue
(from
Payne grey to
dark ultramarine) with a
brown earth (from
burnt Sienna to
burnt Umber via
raw Umber). The same
combination in oil painting, is always a bit more difficult. It is hard not
to get a grey but some painters succeed. Others start with a very dark
purplish base obtained by mixing dark blues and cool reds.
With oil or
acrylic paint, often, the most beautiful black shows up in the long run,
after the application of many glazes (for example).
Presynthetised blacks do exist. We can mention especially the
NEUTRAL HUE, a kind of black used
in watercolour. Its composition is typically a PBk + a PR + a PB (see
pigment nomenclature
). It
gives indeed generally a purplish hue which is sometimes exaggerated. The
term 'neutral' could refer to the reputation of the violet, neither cool,
nor warm according to some authors (whereas others view it as cool). Indeed,
it would be immoderate to claim that a red combined with a blue will give a
neutral hue, chromatically speaking, because they are by no means
complementary.
Ancient black dyes
Concerning
old-time dyes processes, the black colour, which is always difficult to
obtain, has been produced notably by successive soakings in different baths
of (more or less) complementary colours. However, this technique has been
forbidden for a long time in the West for religious reasons (see
Colour mixing techniques ).
Blacks combined with other colours
This kind of
combination is one of the processes that are the most representative of the
subtlety of oil and acrylic painting. Ready-mixed bluish or warm blacks are
not necessarily preferable or superior to the synthesises made by many
painters who created their own "raven
black" (recurrent term) with the help of an
ivory black blended with blue and sometimes with a cool white, or their
"warm black" tinged with red, their purplish "neutral black", etc.
There is a
blend that gives very different, unreal results: black with yellow. It
produces gorgeous, unexpected greens, a lot richer than the combination
yellow+blue.
Toxicity
Most of the
time, black contains a lot of carbon. When it is the case the pigment could
be carcinogenic if there is a frequent contact with skin (information not
confirmed).
A warm black that turns blue ?
Some authors
think that ivory black can create blue colours when used with an acrylic or
another water-based white. We noted an opposite result many times : this
black produces a rather neutral grey, slightly brown and certainly not blue.
Maybe the molecular composition of black and white can play a part and be
reactive enough in the combination to produce the predicted result. We never
noted it.
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